Art

Last week we celebrated May Day with a program focused on immigration. Many tSB participants understand the challenges and beauty of being an immigrant first hand, or see it on a daily basis. To set the tone, we invited tSB alumnus and recent 2014 Youth Speaks Seattle Grand Slam Champion Carlos Nieto to share one of his poems:

This is for every time a politician on the news made you feel less than human.
This is for wanting to go to college but being the only person in your class that can’t sign up for FAFSA.
This is for being afraid to tell people where you’re from.
This is for being of ashamed of telling your best friends where your mom works.
This is for watching your mom work so hard for years just to feel American.
This is for silenced voices and tired dreams.
You wouldn’t think I was an immigrant.
Yes, I understand your pop-culture references,
I hit my Dougie with you,
I laugh with you,
I do homework with you,
I fought with you,
I fought for you,
I am dating you,
I am your best friend,
The person who told you you dropped your wallet this morning on the bus,
I am serving your drinks,
Taking care of your kids,
I even speak the same language as you. I barely have my accent anymore.
Even my clothes don’t give me away: shirt from Columbia, boxers from Portugal, hat from Peru, shit even our clothes our immigrants too!
So why do you hate me so much?
Why do you call me illegal? As if existing was a crime.
White American, conservative politicians, I am not illegal.
I am not a criminal.
Criminal is profiting off of people being stuck in a prison cell.
Criminal is denying food stamps to people who actually need them.
Criminal is tearing apart families that are already on three legs.
Criminal is feeling unsafe in Arizona.
Criminal is killing people at the border instead of detaining them.
Criminal are free trade agreements that screw over farm workers, why do you think we are here in the first place?
Do not talk to me about criminal, America. The only reason I go to college, as cliché as it sounds, is it to one day have a good enough job to my mom a house she can call her own because God only knows how much she has sacrificed for me.
Talking about how “illegal aliens mooch off the system.”
We pay taxes just like you: Sales, property, federal, you name it!
Talking about how “letting illegal aliens are running this country to the ground by stealing all the jobs.
WE DO NOT STEAL YOUR JOBS. We steal your jobs the same way people of color steal white people’s places at universities, WE DO NOT STEAL YOUR JOBS.
IF WE STEAL YOUR JOBS THEN YOU STOLE THIS LAND, except that’s actually true.
We wake up in the morning to go to work just like you.
Never seen.
On the run.
We don’t run this shit but we make this shit run. You’re welcome for the $300 billion in your social security trust fund. WE will NEVER see a penny of it.
You need us America. You have always needed us.
Who do you think built you? What do you think you’re made out of?
So stop throwing money at the border expecting us to go away.
Stop trying to push us under the rug.
Stop talking about “catch and release” methods as if we are animals.
We are human.
We are human just like you.
We are Americans just like you.
We are immigrants. Just. Like. You.

Hot time summer in the city! tSB youth have been spending the summer out in the sun learning how to skateboard, getting sweaty working on community projects, and working literally in the heat of it learning to blow glass. At our most recent glass blowing trip one of our tSB participants took a moment to share his thoughts on the experience of glass blowing and what was running through his mind as he created his first piece of glass art.

Blowing on a colorful diamond

Guest Blogger Troy; tSB Summer Participant

On the day of Aug 12, 2013 I experienced a burning sensation–literally. Blowing glass is not as easy as it seems but is definitely worth it. There are a lot of complicated processes in glass blowing. In the process I was able to make a good looking bowl big enough for a man like myself.

Contradiction of the other
A pool
The equator
Alaska
Blowing on the colorful diamond, huge.
Exciting in Burien.

The tSB Summer Program… Dang, there’s so much to say about it, yet, I could never really grasp everything in a paragraph. I’d like to first start off though, that I really am grateful to have joined the program. Much like the winter program, we alternate between service projects, and boarding; it’s just that in the summer, we skateboard, not snowboard, and yup, just as thrilling. This occurs on the Mondays that we meet, and on Wednesdays, we go to various places such as glass blowing in Tacoma, to staying at Youngstown to work on our video project component of the program. I seriously love and appreciate this program because not only do I get time to go to different places and skate, this program benefits me as a person and a student. While getting our service hours, we get to learn things such as gardening, and mentioned before, glass blowing! All while meeting new people who all have dope personalities. Not only do these things help us in the future, it leads us to finding a new way to express ourselves. All I have to end this is that this is such a sick program and I recommend it to any high schooler who not only wants to get their hours done, but to try new things. And of course, thank you to our sponsors and teachers!

Robin guides tSB in learning the impact of expression, projection, body language, and flow for speaking out and letting one’s voice be heard. Poetry & Rhymes=Good times shared with each other at the hall.

Sorry for being M.I.A.! Things have gotten crazy on our end. So far we’ve finished two Undoing Institutional Oppression trainings, cultivated power with Stephany Hazelrigg, had a wildly successful retreat, learned the basics of Capoeira and had our first snowboarding experience!

Sunday was RAD! With our youth and mentors fitted in gear and boards donated from generous snow giants like evo and Mervin, and SnoCon, we headed east to the Summit at Snoqualmie bright and early. Youth and mentors learned alongside one another, how to buckle into bindings, skate across flat land, dig into our heelsides, and for some, how to carve! After three hours falling and getting back up, we enjoyed an awesome filling lunch from Operation Sack Lunch, then went back to hit the slopes, but this time, we took off onto the lifts!

Sunday was a great day! tSB family, friends, peer leaders, mentors, alumni, and potential Prophets (1st year students) put their creative hands and minds to use to finish an intricate art mural at the Delridge skate park. What an awesome way to give back to the neighborhood we call home! After 5 hours of working in the last of Seattle’s summer sun, we put the finishing touches onto the tile mosaic.

This Saturday will be Delridge Day, and the official opening of the Delridge Skate Park. Come visit us and witness the awesome legitness of tSB art yourself. We’ll be there, so come around and get to know us!